Monday, April 4, 2011

Full of Nothing: April batch - 5 new releases out now!

A split cassette of endless beauty as channelled through young Finnish / Russian sound artists. Ous Mal is Olli from Oulu, now living in Helsinki. If you have slept on his early CDrs and the Preservation full-length - do your ears a favour and find this music asap. Ous Mal's approach is very rich and his melodies and compositions are heartbreakingly sweet. Sampled thrift vinyls and tapes, keys and strings and chanting build up into impressive ambient folk collage. On the B side there is some raw and crispy synth magic from Koltushi village, near Saint Petersburg. Sergei's sound is direct and his tracks are melancholic yet hopeful. Quiet field recordings meet nostalgic electropiano looping and occasional blasting FX attack. This record has been in heavy rotation since the very day we received the masters and we don't seem to grow tired of it. So rad! Spray-painted cassettes, "sand" J-cards. Edition of 100.

Republic of Karelia's very own Anton Filatov is presenting his debut release. This young man lives on the outskirts of Petrozavodsk, basically right in the forest. When he's not busy studying physics and astronomy he composes mellow soundscapes with synths and guitars. He utilizes quite a variety of other sources, too: birdsongs, tape loops, delay wobble. Filled with gentle chords and easy sinewaves this tape is a perfect soundtrack for relaxation. Come here and rest. Spray-painted cassettes, textured blue vellum J-cards. Edition of 50.

To put it shortly: Moscow's Arabian Horses dance on the edge or 'plain weird' and 'fucking good'. Oh, how many times have I seen people's reactions to their live shows! It's always like: "What the hell are they trying to do? No, wait... this shit is getting huge!" The duo have it all: excessive drinking, goofiness, bored/lazy moans, pointless strumming - but add heavy floor tom drumming and black wall of guitar distortion to the mix. Straight to tape, very lo-fi and intense. Here and now. All in 17 minutes. Top notch raw tribal psychedelia. Blue paper covers and spray-painted CDrs. Edition of 50.

Some may have heard of the Russian band Madlene, ultra-heavy noise-rock collective fronted by a tiny shy girl, who sings, too. Gretel is Ekaterina's solo venture. It's not far from Madlene's aesthetics but puts the music in a different setting. The guitar is not that distorted and there is no full drum-kit, the rest stays. Headache paranoid discordant repetitive riffage is supported by cold distant singing. Sounds pretty much like female teenage Cobain locked up in the basement. Unsound ballads for adventurous ears. Spray-painted cassettes, red paper J-cards. Edition of 30.

Pententacles are a guitar duo from Moscow, Russia. Andrei and Vlad used to play in a couple of chaotic hardcore metal bands, however ended up playing drone. Having been around for a few years, liked by many when opening for Nadja and Ben Frost's Russian shows, they are only now releasing their first tape. No composition, no strumming, no riffs - this is mostly feedback duelling. Different textures, mind-opening and scary at times. Their MySpace says they are influenced by "good, evil and LSD". Spray-painted cassettes, textured blue vellum J-cards. Edition of 32.